This invention relates to a system and methods for the efficient generation of ionized gas (vapor) atoms and molecules for water and/or wastewater disinfection, and more generally, to methods and apparatus for non-chemical methods of water treatment, that is, avoiding use of conventional chemical reagents and processes, such as treatments involving one or more of polymers, coagulants, sterilizers, and disinfectants. The invention provides non-chemical methods of water disinfection, coagulation, solids removal, decontamination, and highly efficient and economical purification.
Worldwide demand for water purification and contamination control has continued to grow along with the economic and environmental emphasis on water conservation. According to one aspect of the invention, various combinations of interchangeable process flow schemes that provide high efficiency modular purification and contamination control technology can be selected and optimized for the particular use involved. Such uses include, but are not limited to: non-chemical treatment of: commercial and industrial cooling water for bacterial elimination; treatment of hazardous and/or toxic industrial effluents; purification of wastewater for recycle or reuse; de-toxification and reuse of food processing water; life extension and reuse of machine tool coolants; laundry wastewater purification for reduction of sewer discharge; decontamination of marine ballast and bilge water; recycle and/or reuse of animal production water; and purification of sewage treatment and/or drinking water. The scope of the invention and its applications are literally global. The invention can be utilized for the non-chemical treatment, recovery, and recycling of water and wastewater, including the removal of solids and bacterial agents and microscopic contaminants. Further, the invention can be applied to provide zero discharge of chemically treated wastewater to the surrounding environment, and removes the vast majority of associated corrosion and maintenance problems from the water treatment operations.
The methods of water disinfection most frequently used, and the art of water treatment in general, is most often represented by various hydro-separators, clarifiers, mechanical filters, and/or chemically oriented apparatus and flocculation/coagulation procedures (including chemical post-treatment) whereby impurities are removed from water. The basic types of known water treatment purification arrangements and their accompanying problems and limitations may be categorized generally as follows:
1. Non-regeneratable modular filters are one time use, short-term devices of inexpensive cartridge design that have restrictive low-flow and high head-loss pressure limitations. Typical filter materials are packed cellulose or fibrous/filament textiles that, at best, provide (at optimal flow) no better than a continuous 5-10 micron absolute particle size separation or filtration. Minor recognizable suspended solids in the water influent flow will quickly clog the filter media material within the cartridge and render the filter system involved inoperable. Where moderate and high flow rates are involved, replacement costs and down time are inordinately costly and burdensome. These canister/cartridge filters and separation units are usually non-compatible and fairly short-lived if exposed to oxidizing and corrosive chemical treatment agents within the contaminated water to be purified.
2. Chemical treatment methods typically include use of oxidizers, polymers, flocculants, and/or coagulants, and may also include use of chlorine for disinfection and sterilization. These methods are cost prohibitive and labor-intensive and can require high maintenance, as they can damage the associated waste treatment equipment component(s) system. Further, various chemical treatments involve health and safety risks leading to restrictions on their use and reduction of permitted exposure. Commonly, chemical process treatment methods lead to the generation of voluminous amounts of toxic chemical solids and sludges along with the associated environmental exposure liability problems; further, these methods may involve liability issues and regulatory agency controls due to the necessity of disposal of these hazardous substances.
3. Ozone generators, e.g., as conventionally offered as xe2x80x9cCorona-Arc Generationxe2x80x9d disinfection and treatment systems provide a high voltage electric arc or corona. These open spark discharges are conducive to potentially dangerous situations. Moreover, these systems require fairly high power and have relatively high maintenance requirements, and are expensive to operate in that they require a supply of low-humidity air (leading to continuous desiccator and dryer maintenance requirements) and further require high maintenance air-separation oxygen concentrator equipment. Problems due to potentially toxic exposure to ozone can also exist.
4. Reverse osmosis (R. O.) treatment systems, involving membrane separation of sub-micron particles from water, often present problems associated with shortened membrane life due to plugging, limited process flow capacity, and disinfection of the membrane so as to be free from contaminating biological agents and/or oily materials. The R.O. membrane is highly susceptible to fouling with biological growth; further, R.O. treatment systems are costly both as to initial cost and in operation, as they require substantial electrical power to provide the high pressure needed for operation, and due to their high maintenance requirements.
5. Traditional filtration systems employ one or more of carbon, anthracite, coal, paper, fibrous materials, xe2x80x9cmixed mediaxe2x80x9d, and/or sand as a physical removal method, that is, to establish a solids separation and filtration process. These systems often involve operational problems such as early fouling of the filtration media, which often requires very frequent filter back-washing and adds difficulties relative to the disposal of large quantities of the backwashed materials. The back-wash water may be very biologically active and alsol require disinfection, due to xe2x80x9cbleed throughxe2x80x9d bacterial recontamination of the water being treated. Quite often, in order to maintain a steady-state level of solids removal and continuous purification efficiencies, the entire volume of filtration materials must be removed and replaced several times per year due to encrustment and contamination.
6. Ion exchange filters basically remove only dissolved ions and electrically charged colloidal solids; they rapidly plug in the presence of suspended solids. Even a moderate flow (50-100 GPM) ion exchange filter system represents a complex plumbing network involving unwieldy resin filter and/or xe2x80x9czeolite stagedxe2x80x9d containers and requires large regenerative acid and base tankage. Regeneration of the filter resin is complicated and is often incomplete due to the plugging of the resin pore spaces by the larger particle size suspended solids that gain entry into the flow. These systems have substantial flow rate restrictions limiting their practicality for larger commercial or general-purpose use. Thus, ion exchange filtration is suitable only for very select water treatment or specific wastewaters and also often involves high capital equipment purchase cost in addition to high repetitive media replacement and operational costs.
As explained in further detail below, the present invention encompasses multiple technological advancements, refinements, and/or alterations of the basic principles of applied water treatment as represented in one or more of the following U.S. Patents, as to each of which the present inventor is sole or joint inventor, and which are incorporated by reference herein.
Title. SYSTEM AND REACTOR FOR MIXING COAGULATING AGENTS INTO CONTAMINATED WATER FLOW, AND FOR REMOVING CONTAMINANTS THEREFROM
U.S. Pat. No. 5,443,719 Issued: Aug. 22, 1995
Title: METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR WATER TREATMENT AND PURIFICATION USING GAS ION PLASMA SOURCE AND DISINFECTANT METAL ION COMPLEXES
U.S. Pat. No. 5,635,059 Issued: Jun. 3, 1997
Title: ELECTRO-COALESCENCE/MAGNETIC SEPARATION (ECMS) SYSTEM AND COMPONENTS FOR REMOVAL OF CONTAMINANTS FROM WATER STREAMS, INCLUDING DESALINIZATION.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,597,479 Issued: Jan. 28, 1997
Title: METHOD, SYSTEM, AND REACTOR FOR MIXING COAGULATING AGENTS INTO A CONTAMINATED WATER FLOW, AND FOR REMOVING CONTAMINANTS THEREFROM
U.S. Pat. No. 5,616,250 Issued: Apr. 1, 1997
Title: IMPROVED ULTRAVIOLET STERILIZER AND SOURCE OF IONIZED MOLECULES FOR ECMS REMOVAL OF CONTAMINANTS FROM WATER STREAMS
U.S. Pat. No. 5,622,622 Issued: Apr. 22, 1997
Title: METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR WATER TREATMENT AND PURIFICATION USING GAS ION PLASMA SOURCE AND DISINFECTANT METAL ION COMPLEXES.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,685,994 Issued: Nov. 11, 1997
Title: APPARATUS AND PROCESSES FOR NON-CHEMICAL PLASMA ION DISINFECTION OF WATER
U.S. Pat. No. 5,792,369 Issued: Aug. 11, 1998
The principle object of the invention is to provide extremely efficient, low maintenance, low energy cost modular water purification and contamination control technology for the non-chemical disinfection and contaminant separation of various types of water or wastewater streams. The water treatment and purification areas of particular interest include, but are not limited to, drinking water, ship ballast water, marine discharge wastewaters, commercial and industrial cooling water, industrial and commercial hazardous and/or toxic effluents, manufacturing process water, industrial machine tool coolants, sewage, and agricultural and food processing streams.
Specifically, the non-chemical water purification and disinfection technology of the invention exhibits higher treatment efficiency than more conventional water treatment methods that rely on chemicals, traditional filtration, reverse osmosis, ozone generators, etc, and also involves reduced energy costs. By eliminating the treatment chemicals, increasing sub-micron particle size solids separation and removal, and by very efficient destruction of bacteria and biological agents within the treated water through electrically-driven disinfection; a number of operational, maintenance and serious health and water treatment problems can be eliminated, resulting in the economic recovery of contaminated water, and ultimately in conservation, purification, and protection of shrinking drinking water supplies.
Accordingly, it is the ultimate object of the current invention to establish non-chemical water treatment disinfection and purification technologies that represent realistic, xe2x80x9cuser friendlyxe2x80x9d, and cost effective answers to global water availability issues and concerns.
As in the inventor""s prior patents incorporated by reference above, the system of the invention mixes an atmospheric air stream including a large portion of ionized, highly reactive oxygen and nitrogen vapor into a contaminated water stream to be treated, so that the ionized oxygen and nitrogen react with and kill biologically active organic species such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, amoebas, diatoms, and other microorganisms, thus disinfecting the water stream. The generation of the ionized vapors takes place within a gas ionization system providing particularly efficient, high rate production of the reactive nitrogen and oxygen ionized vapors. This unit is sometimes referred to herein as the NIxe2x80x94OX vapor ion generator, although use of this acronym is not to be taken to limit the invention to embodiments of equipment or processes that may be offered by the inventor and his affiliates under that or a similar tradename or mark.
The NIxe2x80x94OX trademark refers to the production of xe2x80x9cionized oxygenxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cionized nitrogenxe2x80x9d vapor gas ions. This vapor generator when incorporated with the other components of a system according to the invention provides a unique and highly efficient water treatment unit. As explained further below, the components are optimized to generate a plethora of highly reactive singlet oxygen and ionized nitrogen species from oxygen and nitrogen in air, under circumstances also encouraging secondary recombination with water vapor to produce additional disinfecting hydroxide and hydrogen peroxide gas vapor ions. The system is arranged so that the majority of the singlet oxygen ions do not have any opportunity to be converted back to lower energy, less reactive ground state configurations, characteristic of atmospheric oxygen species, but instead react with the ionized nitrogen ions that are formed simultaneously. This interaction sequence quickly stabilizes by production of a very reactive group of electron-rich, i.e., negatively charged, vapor molecules that is very effective in coagulating and disinfecting water. This group of ionized molecules is referred to as the NITROXYL vapor ion species. The NITROXYL vapor ion group represents a unique stand-alone water treatment, suitable for highly efficient treatment and water purification and decontamination. Again, use of this term as shorthand herein should not be construed to limit the invention, e.g., to any equipment produced by the inventor or his affiliates.
Acording to a further aspect of the present invention, in addition to the ionized oxygen and nitrogen species generated and used in ways similar to those disclosed in the inventor""s prior patents, ionized chlorine gas molecules are generated by the electrolysis of brine. If generated in a separate vessel, the chlorine ions are injected into the water to be treated, along with additional oxygen and hydrogen ions also produced by the electrolysis. Alternatively, the chlorine ions can be produced by electrolysis of the water stream being treated (with additional brine added if needed), so that the chlorine ions are produced in situ. This electrolysis unit is known as the CLORIN generator, and the gas stream including ionized chlorine atoms as the CLORIN stream. Again, use of this term as shorthand herein should not be construed to limit the invention, e.g., to any equipment produced by the inventor or his affiliates.
The integration and co-interaction of the NITROXYL vapor ions generated in the NIxe2x80x94OX system with ionized chlorine, oxygen, and hydrogen produced in the CLORIN system according to the invention creates an entirely new family of very accelerated and aggressive disinfectants, oxidants, and coagulants known as CLORINOXYL vapor ions. As above, use of this term as shorthand herein should not be construed to limit the invention, for example, to any equipment produced by the inventor or his affiliates.
In one embodiment, the CLORIN gas stream is produced by electrolysis of the water to be treated (witrh brine added if necessary) between spaced parallel metallic plates, with direct current power applied to alternating ones thereof. The device thus assembled also provides electro-coalescence, in that sub-micron sized contaminants are attracted to the charged plates and agglomerate thereon. Lighter particles tend to float to the surface of the liquid, and can be separated and removed. Heavier particles tend to collect on the plates; when a significant quantity of particles has accumulated, their collective weight causes them to drop off the plates during periods when the charge is removed, e.g., during periodic polarity reversal, which is performed to prevent uneven erosion of the material of the plates and/or accumulation of scale thereon. The fallen particles can be collected and removed as a sludge or the like. In this way the same device serves to generate the CLORIN disinfectant gas stream and as a solids separation and removal device. Alternatively, solids removal can be performed using equipment and techniques disclosed in the applicant""s prior patents listed above, or otherwise.